Some commercial products such as printers, graphics plotters, copiers, and facsimile machines may employ thermal ink-jet printing or piezoelectric printhead technology. Thermal ink-jet printing technology typically includes the repeated heating of resistors to fire ink through a plurality of nozzles onto a media. Piezoelectric printhead technology typically includes the repeated actuation of piezoelectric elements to fire ink through a plurality of nozzles onto a media. In some products, the firing elements, e.g., resistors or piezoelectric elements, are arranged in printheads, in which the printheads are smaller in width than the media and are to be scanned across the media. In these types of products, the firing elements are activated at appropriate times as the printheads are scanned one or more times across the media to cause a desired image to be formed on the media. Printing during multiple scans across the media enables printing fluid to be deposited at their desired locations through any of a number of nozzles. In one regard, therefore, in scanning printhead type of products, an operational firing element may be used to deposit ink at a particular location in place of a defective firing element.
In other products, such as page wide printers, the firing elements are arranged in printheads, in which the printheads are similar to or larger in width than the media. In these types of products, the firing elements are activated at appropriate times to cause printing fluid to be deposited at desired locations on the media during a single pass of either the printheads with respect to the media or the media with respect to the printheads. Typically, the printheads in page wide printers remain fixed while the media moves in a particular direction beneath the printheads.